Raku Pottery in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada

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Buttons for Japan by The Artful Badger

I have always loved pinback button badges. They are such a nifty little way to send a message and show off whatever side of your personality you want. I was thinking about new products to have in my shop and thought hey, I could make buttons!! So I got a button maker and jumped right in. I am absolutely loving making buttons!! I’m having so much fun designing them and learning a bunch of new photoshop skills (there’s still so much of photoshop that is like whaaa? to me, but I’m getting there. ) So of course because it is winter (for a few days yet) and I’m supposed to be making pottery, I needed to look for something else to do, ever the procrastinator, me. So I opened up shop on Zibbet.com and etsy, and ebay. 🙂 I’ve called my shop The Artful Badger…..(pinback buttons are called badges in the UK). So if you want to see them you can just go to www.theartfulbadger.ca. Here are some of my latest….

When the earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan I wanted to do something to help. My good friend and fiddler, Kaoru Nakajima (Carl to his Canadian friends) who visits here often, lives near Tokyo and I was so worried for him. I got a few emails from him saying he and his family were ok, but he sounded scared. I decided to sell buttons to raise money for the relief effort. If you’d like to buy a button you can click either image below and be taken to my zibbet store to purchase one. 100% of the profits from the sales of this “I heart Japan” button design will be donated to the Canadian Red Cross. I have sold over 70 so far.

I have to get back into the pottery studio. I’m loving the buttons and they are making me feel really creative. I was feeling a bit burned out over the winter, and actually wasn’t feeling creative at all. Switching gears into button making has made me get all excited about designing buttons and has spread to designing in general. I am already thinking about ways to turn some of the button designs into clay pieces. My mum, Joan Beck of Beck’s Pottery is visiting right now and has promised to make me a bunch of mugs while she is here. Last year she made the mugs and I glazed them after she went back to BC, they turned out really nicely and sold really quickly! I think last year she made about 40 or so. Now I want 500! 🙂

Well, bye for now and I hope the weather is fine wherever you are and please remember to live your life to the fullest and tell your friends and family you love them. We are lucky to be here.

Hi – I work for the Canadian Red Cross. Just wanted to drop you a quick line to thank you for your support. Please do stay connected with us:
Twitter: @redcrosscanada
Facebook: canadianredcross
Blog: http://redcrosstalks.wordpress.com
Thanks again,
Karen